'They don’t have to be ashamed to talk about it': Suicide prevention training for regular people

'One human helping another human' A suicide prevention training workshop consisting of 25 people took place in Wingham over the weekend. CTV's Scott Miller reports.

Paulie O’Byrne has survived sexual assault, alcoholism, anxiety and numerous suicide attempts.

Now, he’s on the other side, and is helping others talk freely about how to help people who are considering taking their own lives.

“I’m pretty proud to say it’s been 14 years since I had my last suicide attempt. So, I think this is a chance to give back to help people, that maybe were in a position to help me,” explained the Mount Forest native and founder of 1 in 5, a mental health advocacy group.

O’Byrne is helping to provide 25 ordinary people from the Wingham area the tools to recognize the risk factors of suicide, and give them the confidence to intervene to prevent suicidal thoughts from becoming suicidal behaviour.

It’s called ASIST, or "Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training."

“ASIST is about getting out in front of suicide. We want to be the person that says, 'Hey, maybe suicide is present, but what can we do right now to keep you safe,'” said Jackie Ralph, youth awareness and education supervisor with the Canadian Mental Health Association of Grey-Bruce, who is one of the other ASIST facilitators in Wingham this weekend.

The two day intensive workshop was brought to Wingham by Shannon Mercer, a local high school teacher and founder of Mental Health Matters-Wingham.

“Ten years ago, I didn’t know anybody or student that had died by suicide. Now, sadly, I know several and we want to ensure that people know there are people that they can go to, to talk to. They don’t have to be ashamed to talk about it,” said Mercer.

“Friends and family are always first contact. So, if we’re going to talk to anybody about suicide first, it’s going to be them. So, if we want anybody to have these skills, we want it to be the general population,” added Ralph.

Justin Wall and Sydney Hunking are two of the people taking the ASIST workshop on Sunday. They’ve both known people who died by suicide, and want the tools to be helpful the next time it happens.

“It is such a prevalent part of society. This isn’t something we can say is small or in the background. It’s all something we’re going to face at one point, so why not be prepared to help the people we care about and are close to us,” said Wall.

“Everyone just wants to be heard. We have learned how just listening can even help. Everyone has ears, so we can all do it,” added Hunking.

“We are putting a human aspect to it. One human helping another human. Maybe not a clinician helping a patient, but two humans helping each other,” said O’Byrne, who was recently named as the London Knights’ mental health coach.